Biden’s Build Back Better Bill Loses Support – Closing Bull Dec. 23rd, 2021
Quick Summary:
In this week’s Closing Bull, Senator Joe Manchin withdrew his support for Biden’s Build Back Better Bill, the market rallies hard against the Omicron Variant, the FDA has approved of the emergency use of the Pfizer Covid treatment pill, Kellogg’s workers reach a settlement with management, retired Disney CEO Bob Iger says Disney+ needs to broaden its audience, and lastly but not least, a fun fact for the week.
Let’s get into the news!
Key News This Week:
Market recap and system update
The market rallies in the rise of the Omicron Variant
Senator Joe Manchin withdraws support of the Build Back Better Bill
The FDA approves emergency use for the Pfizer Covid treatment pill
Kellogg’s workers reach a settlement with management
Retired Disney CEO Bob Iger says Disney+ needs to broaden its audience
Interesting fact
Read the Transcript
Welcome to my financial markets’ re-cap for the week.
Before we get to the news, a quick update on the system. We, we are still long the market, this was one of our longest trades of the year.
It’s also been one of the craziest most volatile periods I have ever had the pleasure to sit through.
Thankfully, things are going our way, we close this out next week, so hopefully, there is a little more left in this trend up.
So that was the system update. Here’s what happened in the news this week.
News has been dominated, obviously by the Omicron Variant and the unknown nature of its impact. On Monday, I must admit I really didn’t think Santa was coming to town. There was a real sense of fear in the markets. However, since then, the signs are reasonably good in the data that is available. The market has reacted to that positively by rallying hard since Tuesday.
This was followed by the good news of the FDA’s approval for emergency use of the Pfizer Covid treatment pill. That really sounds like a terrific breakthrough for science against the pandemic.
But, while I cannot ignore the elephant in the room, I don’t really want to talk about Covid, so what else is in the news this week.
Well, the other big news story was that Biden’s $1.7B Build Back Better plan as it stands is dead.
In a surprise move, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin withdrew his support for the bill.
But the Dems might try to Build Back Smaller in the new year. With the president remarking that he still expects to get something done with Joe Manchin in the near future.
In case you missed it, supplies of Kellogg’s cornflakes have been hard to find in stores lately. Kellogg workers went on strike in early October and have only just reached a settlement with management. The strike ended after union workers voted to approve a new five-year labor contract.
In media news, recently retired Disney CEO Bob Iger says Disney+ needs to appeal to a broader audience to reach its goal of 230M subscribers by 2024 — double what it has now. In other words, it has to take on Netflix and cater beyond kids and nostalgic millennials. What a fantastic job Mr. Iger did at Disney, those are big shoes to fill.
Lastly, here’s an interesting fact:
Did you know that the world’s first text message ever sent, that simply said “Merry Christmas,” sold as an NFT for $121,000 at an auction house in Paris?
This NFT thing is nuts, but I suppose that is bragging rights to someone out there.
That’s it from me, a Merry Christmas and holiday season to you and everyone in your family, thanks for watching, and bye for now.